This invention relates to porous articles and specifically porous articles with controlled macro porosity which are usable to remove unwanted or required species from process streams or diluents.
It is known that process streams or diluents may contain either unwanted or required species which have to be removed from the process stream or diluent. For example, natural gas can contain compounds of mercury and/or arsenic and it is often necessary to cause desulphurisation of gas and/or liquid streams.
WO 98/17374 (the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference) discloses a desulphurisation agent which comprises at least one compound of manganese and at least one compound of iron. The agent may be in the form of shaped particles which may be porous with a pore volume of from 0.1 to 0.6 ml/g. Sorption materials such as copper compounds and/or zinc compounds may be provided on the surface or within the pores of the agent or within the bulk phase.
It is an object of this invention to provide a porous article which has controlled macro porosity and which can have adsorbents and/or catalytic species applied thereto or loaded therein for the processing of diluents or process streams.
It has been found that by controlling the macro porosity in this context the effectiveness of such porous articles is enhanced.